Fm jaishankar has rightly called out us pakistan f 16 deal

Fm jaishankar has rightly called out us pakistan f 16 deal

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar rightly called out the United States for trying to justify its $450 million F-16 refurbishment package to Pakistan as one aimed at retaining “interoperability with US and partner forces in ongoing counter-terrorism efforts and in preparation for future contingency operations”. In response, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reiterated that it was Washington’s “obligation” to ensure that the aircraft are maintained and sustained to bolster Islamabad’s capability to deal with “clear terrorist threats” from al Qaeda and ISIS. Truly, the US does not fool anybody with this explanation. Whether Pakistan fought terrorism at all has been a question of international debate. What role, if any, Pakistan’s F-16s played in this is even more unclear. Much of the global “war on terror” in Afghanistan was fought by US and NATO troops on the ground, and from the skies it was UAVs that rained missiles on high value targets. Pakistan’s two failed operations on its territory against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan included the Air Force. If F-16s were deployed in those operations, the results have not been promising. But to the extent that the US has used the F-16s as a reward for Pakistan — first for its role in the defeat of the Soviet Union in the first Afghan war, then as a sweetener in 2001 after commandeering its co-operation in the invasion of Afghanistan, and once again in 2016 citing the anti-Tehreek-e-Taliban operation — these aircraft have played an important role.

It can be presumed that the “F-16 case for sustainment and related equipment” approved on September 7 is reward for co-operation in the elimination of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul a month earlier, and for giving the US access to Pakistani airspace, and also, perhaps, for delivering the Taliban to talks that enabled US withdrawal from Afghanistan. It reverses the freeze on military assistance to Pakistan imposed by the previous Trump administration. Donald Trump wasn’t the first or only US president to figure out Pakistan’s “deceit”. But the others let it pass for what they saw as the big picture, including getting Osama bin Laden.

India’s fulminations are unlikely to change the direction of the wind. Since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine, Delhi has deployed “strategic autonomy” to fashion a new foreign policy. Its “neutrality”, and its decision to ignore international sanctions to buy oil from Russia, have angered the US and Europe. But India is not the only country that is balancing relationships. When the White House spokesman speaks about both India and Pakistan as US partners with “different points of emphasis”, he confirms for India the logic of its non-alignment. Of course, eventually, the best antidote lies in the normalisation of India-Pakistan relations.